Optimization of Molding Parameters for a Micro Gear with Taguchi Method

Nowadays, micro injection molding became one of the technologies for micro manufacture. It is widely used as a cost-effective replication method for mass production of plastic parts. However, one of the challenges for micro molding is the shrinkage which will deteriorate the quality of the micro parts molded. The way to control and minimize the shrinkage is by mean of optimizing the molding parameters. Optimizing process parameter problems are routinely performed in the manufacturing industry, particularly in setting the final optimal process parameters. Final optimal process parameter setting is recognized as one of the most important steps in injection molding for improving the quality of molded products. In this study, Taguchi method was implemented in finding the optimal micro injection molding condition for minimum shrinkage of a micro gear in micro molding experiment. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was carried out to determine the most influential factor that contributes towards the shrinkage quality of micro gear. The influential factors that affecting shrinkage are packing time with a contribution of 32.47% and injection speed with a contribution of 22.34%.